I Bet You by Ilsa Madden-Mills Pages: 298
Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform on October 25, 2018
Genres: New Adult, Sports Romance, contemporary
Source: eARC from Author
New Standalone Sports Romance
Sexy Athlete: I bet you . . . Penelope Graham: Burn in hell, quarterback.
The text is random but Penelope figures out exactly who “Sexy Athlete” is. And why she shouldn't take his wager.
Ryker Voss.Football star.Walks on water and God's gift to women.Just ask him.
His bet? He promises Penelope he’ll win her the heart of the guy she’s been crushing on. His plan—good old-fashioned jealousy. Once her crush sees her kissing Ryker, he'll realize what he's missing. Sounds legit, right? The only question is . . . why is Ryker being so nice to her?
Penelope Graham.Virgin.Lover of sparkly vampires and calculus.His mortal enemy.
Penelope knows she shouldn’t trust a jock, but what’s a girl to do when she needs a date to Homecoming? And Ryker’s keeping a secret, another bet, one that will destroy Penelope’s heart forever.
Will the quarterback score the good girl or will his secrets mean everyone loses this game of love?
*Author's Note: This is a standalone sports romance with an HEA.
**You do not have to have read I Dare You, although you should if you love jocks and nerdy heroines. 🙂
I bet You is a new adult sports romance by Ilsa Madden-Mills. While it is the second book in a series, each of the books are interconnected standalones that can each be read by themselves. I have read a few of Ilsa’s other books and I have loved them, so even though I didn’t read the first book in this series, I wanted to check this one out. I am sucker for a story featuring a bet plot. But once I started reading, I will admit I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t like I Bet You. In fact, I put it down several times in the first 20% of the book. But a few weeks after I set the book down for the second or third time, I decided to pick it back up again. And Once I picked it up that last time and I pushed through to about the 30% mark of the story, the whole vibe of the book changed and I was much more interested. Does that ever happen to you? The start of a book can feel really slow, or doesn’t allow you to connect with the characters, but once you read further everything starts to click and you start to get more into the story and the characters? That is exactly what happened with me and I Bet You.
I Bet You is set on a college campus. The football team has a bet war going on, and our main character Penelope, gets caught in their crossfire with a bet. I didn’t care for much about this initial bet scene. Penelope and Ryker (the school quarterback) both rubbed me the wrong way, and the book just seemed a bit too superficial. But I am so glad that wasn’t my impression of the while story, because the more I got to know Ryker and Penelope the more I understood them and the more I liked them.
While I Bet You is not one of my favorite of Ilsa Madden-Mills’ books, it did have her signature flirty humor and a great romance. It ended up being a fun read for me, but it was a bumpy start. If you are a diehard fan of Ilsa Madden-Mills, you won’t want to miss this book. The romance that grows between Penelope and Ryker was great, and their story is one that I think a lot of fans will really enjoy. If you are a new fan of hers, I would suggest you start with her Briarwood Academy series.
I’ve been eyeing a couple of the books in this series. Sports romances can be so fun. Glad you enjoyed this one even though it wasnt the best in the series. Great review!